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Three U.S. soliders were killed during a drone attack by an Iran-backed group near the Jordan border. U.S. President Joe Biden says the U.S. will respond. Ukraine says it has uncovered massive military corruption. And using AI to give people who lost their voice a way to speak again.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti — Haiti's government said Sunday it remains hopeful for a "swift and positive outcome," after a Kenyan court ruled against Nairobi's plan to deploy police officers to support the troubled island nation's security forces. The ruling on Friday has thrown into doubt the future of a U.N.-backed multinational force long sought by Haiti's government, which has pleaded for international help to confront its spiraling security crisis. Kenya's government had previously said it was ready to provide up to 1,000 personnel, an offer welcomed by the United States and other nations that had ruled out putting their own forces on the ground. The government of Haiti said in a statement Sunday that it was "following developments in Kenya and expects a swift and positive outcome." It added that it would "like to thank the many countries that have come forward to offer various types of aid to restore order and security as soon as possible." The Kenyan government has vowed to challenge the high court ruling. Kenyan President William Ruto has described his country's undertaking as a "mission for humanity," in step with its long record of contributing to peacekeeping missions abroad. The Western hemisphere's poorest nation, Haiti has been in turmoil for years, with armed gangs taking over parts of the country and unleashing brutal violence, leaving the economy and public health system in tatters. The 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise plunged the country further into chaos. No elections have taken place since 2016 and the presidency remains vacant. The multinational mission — initially approved for one year — had envisioned Kenyan police on the offensive with their Haitian counterparts, who are outnumbered and outgunned by gang members. The U.N. Security Council approved the mission in early October. In the statement, Haiti urged its citizens "to remain calm, to support our security forces and not to allow themselves to be intimidated by disinformation campaigns and threats of violence."

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

CHICAGO — Former President Donald Trump should be removed from Illinois' primary ballot, but the decision should be left to the courts, a retired judge recommended Sunday to the state's election board, arguing that it was clear Trump engaged in insurrection in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The Illinois State Board of Elections is expected to consider the recommendation Tuesday. Attorneys for Trump and citizens seeking to keep the Republican former president off the ballot presented their arguments Friday before the hearing officer, Clark Erickson. The retired longtime Kankakee County judge is a Republican. The Illinois effort to keep Trump off the March ballot is similar to those filed in several other states. The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments next month in a historic Colorado Supreme Court ruling to remove Trump from that state’s ballot. The case presents the high court with its first look at a provision of the 14th Amendment barring some people who “engaged in insurrection” from holding public office. Erickson’s 21-page recommendation concluded that a “preponderance of the evidence” presented proves that Trump engaged in insurrection. But he said the election board can't engage in the “significant and sophisticated constitutional analysis” required to remove Trump’s name before the March 19 primary. “All in all, attempting to resolve a constitutional issue within the expedited schedule of an election board hearing is somewhat akin to scheduling a two-minute round between heavyweight boxers in a telephone booth,” he wrote. Still, Erickson noted that even if the board disagrees with his reasoning, Trump's name should be removed from the Illinois primary ballot. The election board is split evenly between four Democrats and four Republicans. Free Speech for People, which is leading the Illinois ballot effort, praised the recommendation from the Republican retired judge as “significant” but argued that Illinois law allows the board to make the ballot decision. “We expect that the board and ultimately Illinois courts will uphold Judge Erickson’s thoughtful analysis of why Trump is disqualified from office, but — with the greatest respect — correct him on why Illinois law authorizes that ruling,” Ron Fein, legal director for the group, wrote in a Sunday statement. Trump's campaign did not immediately return a message left Sunday. 

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Washington — House Republicans on Sunday released two articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as they vowed to swiftly push forward with election-year efforts to oust him over what they call his failure to manage the U.S.-Mexico border. The rare step against a Cabinet member drew outrage from Democrats and the agency as a politically motivated stunt lacking the constitutional basis to remove Mayorkas from office. Republicans contend Mayorkas is guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors” that amount to a “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” on immigration and a “breach of the public trust.” Impeachment, they say, is “Congress's only viable option." “Alejandro N. Mayorkas willfully and systemically refused to comply with the immigration laws, failed to control the border to the detriment of national security, compromised public safety, and violated the rule of law and separation of powers in the Constitution, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States," the impeachment resolution says. Only once in American history has a Cabinet secretary been impeached: William Belknap, President Ulysses Grant's war secretary, in 1876, over kickbacks in government contracts. Going after an official for a policy dispute, in this instance over the claim that Mayorkas is not upholding immigration laws, is unprecedented. Ever since taking control of the House in 2023, Republicans have pushed to impeach Mayorkas. Sunday’s announcement comes as their other impeachment drive — to impeach Democratic President Joe Biden in relation to his son Hunter's business dealings — has struggled to advance. But Republicans have moved with rapid speed against Mayorkas after a series of hearings in recent weeks. It all comes at a time when border security and immigration are key issues in the 2024 campaign and as Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, is promising to launch the “largest deportation operation” in U.S. history if he returns to the White House. The Republican-controlled House Homeland Security Committee is set to vote Tuesday on the articles of impeachment, aiming to send them to the full House for consideration. Republican Speaker Mike Johnson has said the House will move forward as soon as possible with a vote after that. Passage requires only a House majority. The Senate would hold a trial, and a two-thirds vote is required for conviction, an exceedingly unlikely outcome in the Democratic-run Senate. The Republican push also comes at a curious time for Mayorkas. Even as the House is taking steps to try to remove him from office, Mayorkas has been engaged in arduous negotiations with senators seeking to reach a bipartisan deal on border policy. He has won praise from senators for his engagement in the process. Democrats have lambasted the impeachment proceedings, calling them a waste of time when lawmakers should be working together to solve the problems. They also say Republicans are part of the problems at the border, with Republicans attacking Mayorkas even as they have failed to give his department the tools it needs to manage the situation. “They don’t want to fix the problem; they want to campaign on it. That’s why they have undermined efforts to achieve bipartisan solutions and ignored the facts, legal scholars and experts, and even the Constitution itself in their quest to baselessly impeach Secretary Mayorkas,” the department said in a statement Sunday. Rep. Bennie Thompson, the top Democrat on the House committee, said the Republican resolution did not have “a shred of evidence of high crimes or misdemeanors — the Constitutional standard for impeachment.”  The two articles mark the culmination of a roughly yearlong examination by Republicans of the secretary's handling of the border and what they describe as a crisis of the administration's own making. Republicans contend that the administration and Mayorkas specifically either got rid of policies in place under Trump that had controlled migration or enacted policies of their own that encouraged migrants from around the world to come to the U.S. illegally via the southern border. They also accused Mayorkas of lying to Congress, pointing to comments about the border being secure or about vetting of Afghans airlifted to the U.S. They cite growing numbers of migrants who have at times overwhelmed the capacity of Customs and Border Protection authorities to care for and process them. Arrests for illegal crossings topped 2 million in each of the U.S. government’s past two budget years. In December, arrests for illegal border crossings from Mexico reached an all-time high since figures have been released. The backlog of people in immigration court has grown by 1 million over the past budget year. In the articles, Republicans argue that Mayorkas is deliberately violating immigration laws passed by Congress, such as those requiring detention of migrants, and that through his policies, a crisis has arisen at the border. They accuse him of releasing migrants without effective ways to make sure they show up for court or are removed from the country. They cited an Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo written by Mayorkas that sets priorities for whom the agency should target for enforcement proceedings as proof that he is letting people stay in the country who don't have the right to do so. They also attacked the administration’s use of the humanitarian parole authority, which allows the DHS secretary to admit certain migrants into the country. Republicans said the Biden administration has essentially created a mass parole program that bypasses Congress. They cited cities such as New York that have struggled with high numbers of migrants, taxing housing and education systems, as proof of the financial costs immigration is taking. Democrats, as well as Mayorkas, have argued that it’s not the administration’s policies that are causing people to attempt to migrate to America but that the movement is part of a global mass migration of people fleeing wars, economic instability and political repression.

Tampa, Florida — Revelers clad in pirate finery packed Tampa's waterfront this weekend as a flotilla of boats arrived for the city's annual Gasparilla Pirate Fest. Led by Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla, the invading pirates docked to make a final demand for the key to the city. Once ashore, the festivities celebrating their annual invasion included a Saturday afternoon parade through downtown and live music and bead throwing that lasted well into the night. A fixture nearly every year since 1904, the Gasparilla Pirate Fest is named for the mythical pirate Jose Gaspar. There's not much evidence he actually existed, but according to legend he plundered ships and captured hostages in the Gulf of Mexico from the 1780s until around 1821. The colorful account of his supposed life first surfaced in the early 1900s in an advertising brochure for the Gasparilla Inn, which was located south of Tampa in Boca Grande at the end of a rail line and in need of an exciting promotion to lure in guests. Called the “Last of the Buccaneers,” Gaspar's memory lives on in the name of Tampa Bay’s NFL team.

Beirut, Lebanon — A local leader and seven other members of a jihadi militia in southern Syria affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) group were killed Sunday in Daraa province, a war monitor said. The cradle of the 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad that was followed by years of war, Daraa province remains unstable despite the return of government forces in 2018 following a reconciliation agreement with rebels. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said "a senior leader" was among the eight killed "in violent clashes between local factions" and the IS-affiliated group. Syria's official news agency SANA reported that "eight terrorists from Daesh were eliminated in the town of Nawa," using the Arabic acronym for IS. The report said the deaths included "the so-called leader of Hauran," which spans over parts of southern Syria and northern Jordan. The Observatory, which relies on a vast network of sources in Syria, said the leader was in charge of "strengthening the links between the cells" of the jihadi group in the south of the country. Former rebels in Daraa province who accepted the 2018 deal sponsored by Russia, Damascus' main ally, were able to keep their light weapons. Attacks, some claimed by IS, regularly occur there, as well as armed clashes and assassinations of government supporters, former opposition figures and civilians working for the government. In late 2022 IS confirmed the death of its former leader, killed in Daraa during clashes with local fighters.

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Washington — U.S. and Chinese officials will meet in Beijing Tuesday for their first talks in years to stem the production of ingredients for the drug fentanyl, senior Biden administration officials said. The meeting of the counternarcotics working group comes after Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged during a summit with U.S. President Joe Biden in November to clamp down on the trade. "For years bilateral cooperation between the United States and the People's Republic of China on counternarcotics has been suspended which has hindered our progress," a U.S. official said. "But that changed during the November 15 meeting," the official told reporters on the condition of anonymity. Washington hopes to get China to cooperate on tackling companies that manufacture the precursor chemicals to make fentanyl, a synthetic opioid many times more powerful than heroin, and on cutting financing for the trade. Fentanyl has caused an epidemic of addiction in the United States, with 100,000 overdose deaths a year, making it the leading cause of death of people aged 18 to 49, the official said. Since the summit China has shut down one company, blocked some international payments and resumed sharing information on shipments and trafficking, added the official. The meeting, featuring U.S. justice, homeland security, diplomatic and counternarcotics officials, will focus on "ongoing coordination to support concrete enforcement actions." Xi said after meeting Biden in California in November that China "deeply sympathizes" with victims of fentanyl. China and the United States have been trying to stabilize relations after years of tensions with Beijing's top diplomat Wang Yi and U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan meeting in Bangkok this past week. Another senior U.S. official said after those talks that cooperation on fentanyl between the two countries "needs to be continuous and ongoing. It's not just one snapshot in time."

Juba, South Sudan — Gunmen attacked villagers in the oil-rich region of Abyei claimed by both Sudan and South Sudan, leaving at least 52 people dead, including a U.N. peacekeeper, and 64 wounded, a regional official said Sunday. The motive for the attack Saturday evening was not immediately clear but it was suspected to revolve around a land dispute, Bulis Koch, Abyei information minister, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Abyei. Deadly ethnic violence has been common in the region, where Twic Dinka tribal members from neighboring Warrap State are locked in a land dispute with Ngok Dinka from Abyei over the Aneet area, located at the border. The attackers in Saturday's violence were armed youth from the Nuer tribe who migrated to Warrap state last year because of flooding in their areas, Koch said. In a statement, the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei, UNISFA, condemned the violence that killed the peacekeeper. UNIFSA confirmed intercommunal clashes took place in the Nyinkuac, Majbong and Khadian areas leading to casualties and the evacuation of civilians to UNISFA bases. "The UNISFA base in Agok came under attack by an armed group. The mission repelled the attack, but tragically a Ghanaian peacekeeper was killed," the statement said. Sudan and South Sudan have disagreed over control of the Abyei region since a 2005 peace deal ended decades of civil war between Sudan's north and south. Both Sudan and South Sudan claim ownership of Abyei, whose status was unresolved after South Sudan became independent from Sudan in 2011. The region's majority Ngok Dinka people favor South Sudan, while the Misseriya nomads who come to Abyei to find pasture for their cattle favor Sudan. Currently, the region is under the control of South Sudan. An African Union panel proposed a referendum for Abyei but there was disagreement over who could vote. Currently, the region is under the control of South Sudan. Inter-communal and cross-border clashes have escalated since South Sudan deployed its troops to Abyei in March.

Skopje, North Macedonia — North Macedonia's parliament Sunday approved a caretaker government with a mandate to organize a general election in May.  The government of the small Balkan country of 1.8 million people will be headed by the country's first-ever ethnic Albanian prime minister, current parliament speaker Talat Xhaferi, 61.  The 120-member parliament approved the caretaker government 65-3, with the main opposition, center-right VMRO-DPMNE lawmakers abstaining.  Despite the abstention, VMRO-DPMNE will join the government with two ministers (interior and labor and social welfare) out of the 20 total ministers, plus three deputy ministers.  VMRO-DPMNE attacked Xhaferi in a statement.  "Talat Xhaferi is the man who is known for violating the Constitution, the laws, the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly. ... Talat Xhaferi is a man who comes from a party in which all the leaders' mouths are full of European values, but whose actions only show how they are violated. Hence, one can only expect and think that Talat Xhaferi can only do worse," the statement said.  The parliament accepted the resignation of the government led by Dimitar Kovacevski, head of the center-left Social Democratic Union, on Friday and North Macedonia President Stevo Pendarovski called on Xhaferi, a lawmaker with the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration and speaker since April 2017, to form a new government.  The practice of forming a caretaker government 100 days before election day was established in 2015 as part of a deal between the main political parties under the mediation of the European Union to end a political crisis at the time.  The main political parties agreed last month to hold general elections on May 8, two months early. The election will coincide with the second round of the presidential elections.  VMRO-DPMNE had been pressing for early elections, accusing the government led by the center-left Social Democrats and their junior coalition partners of corruption, nepotism and incompetence.  Before submitting his resignation, Kovachevski told reporters that "the state will maintain its strategic direction, which is the Western orientation and the strategic partnership with the USA."  North Macedonia, together with Albania, began membership talks with the European Union in 2022 and has been a candidate to join the bloc since 2005. The country must meet certain criteria to join the EU, including changing its constitution to recognize a Bulgarian minority — a highly contentious issue because of the overlapping histories and cultures of Bulgaria and North Macedonia.  Constitutional changes require a two-thirds majority in parliament. 

Bangkok, Thailand — Thailand and China on Sunday signed off on a visa waiver agreement at talks between their foreign ministers as the two countries look to boost ties. The deal inked by Thai foreign minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi allows people from the two nations to travel to one another's country visa-free from March 1. Thai officials hope the deal will encourage more Chinese to come and boost the kingdom's vital tourism sector, which has struggled to bounce back from the pandemic. "This agreement is a symbol of our long-lasting friendship, trust and confidence... and help to stimulate the tourism industry in both countries," Parnpree said.    Wang welcomed the agreement, saying Thai and Chinese people "are one family." Precise details of the visa arrangements were not announced Sunday, but earlier this month Thai officials said the deal would allow stays of up to 30 days per visit. Before his talks with Parnpree, Wang held two days of talks in Bangkok with U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan covering the sensitive issues of Taiwan and the attacks in the Red Sea by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Seoul, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the test launch of a new strategic cruise missile from a submarine, state media said Monday, the latest tension-raising move by the nuclear-armed state.  The two Pulhwasal-3-31 missiles "flew in the sky above the East Sea... to hit the island target" on Sunday, state-run news agency KCNA reported, adding that Kim Jong Un had "guided" the launch.  The Pulhwasal-3-31 is a new generation of strategic cruise missile that Pyongyang said it had only tested for the first time on Wednesday, firing multiple missiles toward the Yellow Sea.  Sunday's test from the submarine "had no impact on the security of a neighboring country and has nothing to do with the regional situation," the report continued, adding that Kim had "expressed great satisfaction" with the launch.  South Korea's military said Sunday that it had detected cruise missiles fired near waters around the North's Sinpo area. Pyongyang has accelerated weapons testing in the new year, including tests of what it called an "underwater nuclear weapon system" and a solid-fueled hypersonic ballistic missile.   Unlike their ballistic counterparts, the testing of cruise missiles is not banned under current U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang.   Cruise missiles tend to be jet-propelled and fly at a lower altitude than more sophisticated ballistic missiles, making them harder to detect and intercept.   Recent months have seen a sharp deterioration in ties between the two Koreas, with both sides jettisoning key tension-reducing agreements, ramping up frontier security, and conducting live-fire drills along the border.

New Orleans, Louisiana — With their purple, gold and green colors and toy babies hidden inside, king cakes are staples of Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, but apparently they're also valuable enough to steal — at least this time of year during the Carnival season. A thief stole seven king cakes — about as many as he could carry — during a break-in last week at a New Orleans bakery. The thief also took cash and a case of vodka from Bittersweet Confections last Wednesday, according to the New Orleans Police Department. "Our king cakes are just that good," the bakery wrote on social media. "But please come and purchase one during our regular store hours." While it's a secular celebration, Carnival in New Orleans — and around the world — is strongly linked to Christian and Roman Catholic traditions. The season begins on Jan. 6, the 12th day after Christmas, and continues until Mardi Gras, known as Fat Tuesday, which is the final day of feasting, drinking and revelry before Ash Wednesday and the fasting associated with Lent. King cakes are among the foods most associated with Carnival in New Orleans. The rings of pastry are adorned with purple, green and gold sugar or icing, and they often have a tiny plastic baby hidden inside as a prize. One wisecracker responded to the bakery's social media post with a tongue-in-cheek false admission that he was the thief. "It was me. ...I'm holding all seven babies hostage until I get a lifetime supply of King Cakes from you every year," the man posted.

Tehran, Iran — The trial of a Swedish EU diplomat wrapped up in Tehran on Sunday, with Iranian prosecutors seeking the maximum penalty for the man accused of spying for Iran's arch-foe, Israel.     The prosecutor said that 33-year-old Johan Floderus — who works for the European Union diplomatic service — was charged with "very extensive intelligence cooperation with the Zionist occupation regime," meaning Israel, according to the judiciary's Mizan Online website.    "Given the important nature and adverse effects of the accused's actions, I demand the maximum penalty," Mizan reported the prosecutor as saying.    Floderus was charged with "corruption on earth," which is one of Iran's most serious offenses and carries a maximum penalty of death.   The Swedish national was arrested on April 17, 2022, at Tehran airport on his return to Iran from a trip with friends and has been on trial since December 2023.    No date has yet been set for the verdict.   Mizan published photos of Floderus in a prisoner's uniform accompanied by his two lawyers in a near-empty Tehran courtroom.    It said the court sessions have ended, but his lawyers have a week to submit their defense.   Sweden and the EU have repeatedly called for Floderus' immediate release, arguing that there was "absolutely no reason" for him to be held in Evin prison, where several government opponents are also being held.   On January 17, Sweden summoned the Iranian charge d'affaires to demand the release of citizens "arbitrarily detained" in Iran.   Relations between Sweden and Iran have deteriorated since a Swedish court in July 2022, handed down a life sentence to Iranian national Hamid Noury "for grave breaches of international humanitarian law and murder.”   Noury is a former Iranian prison official. The case related to the killing of at least 5,000 prisoners across Iran to avenge attacks carried out by exiled opposition group the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) at the end of the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88.   Governments, human rights groups and families of foreign nationals being held in Iran have accused Tehran of engaging in "hostage diplomacy.”   Several European nationals are being held in Iran, including four from France.    Louis Arnaud, a French national, was sentenced in November to five years in prison for propaganda and endangering the security of the country.